The speech given by the reptilian was met by a steady expression from Daneel, with a faint hint of looking like someone who was stifling a yawn by the end of it.
As soon as she noticed this, the reptilian humphed and turned back to see that even the lips of her comrades were twitching, as of they were close to bursting into laughter.
This brought an even more angry expression on her face, but as soon as they noticed this, a shudder of alarm passed through them, and a moment later, they nodded while looking straight ahead.
Seeing this camaraderie between the group, Daneel figured out that they must have been working together for quite a long time. Also, it was obvious that this reptilian was used to speaking a lot, but he really didn't mind - even though he had spoken to his master multiple times, they hadn't had the time to discuss much about the Mainland. Now, he was receiving information for free, so why complain?
Granted, it was a bit irritating to hear the high and mighty attitude of these assassins from the TriCobra sect, but Daneel felt that they might even be a bit justified. After all, this attitude had been adopted even by some of the Heroes who had gone over to the Church, so wasn't it expected of these individuals who had even grown up in such an advanced place to regard his continent as some backwoods village?
Some of the information he had gotten was quite interesting, though. For example, he had always thought that the mainland might not be much larger in area than Angaria, but from the way the reptilian had referred to his home as a scrap of land, it was obvious that he had to broaden his horizons.
As for the rest, knowing that he could dissect all the words of the reptilian later or have the system do it for him, Daneel focused on the task at hand and said, "I'm ready to leave when you are. By all means, do show me just how 'experts' act…"
There was a very faint hint of mockery in his tone, which did not go undetected by the three assassins.
This time, they were all united in their reaction, as they all looked at him with gloating expressions, like a grown man would look at a child who was posturing in front of him even though he was only a quarter of his height.
After sharing a look between each other that made it seem like they had decided that they would definitely show him his place, the three began to fly up without saying anything, and without a word, Daneel followed them.
Flying as high as one could into the sky was one of the first things that were tested out by Heroes when they broke through. After all, the sky represented the ultimate ceiling of hopes and dreams that impacted one throughout their lives, so there were many who even had to be saved by other Heroes when they flew too high and ran out of Energy, only to fall to the ground like birds that had flown too close to the sun.
The higher one went, the more oppression they would feel, almost as if the Heavens, themselves, were pushing down with their feet, as if to say that their power was not enough to enter this divine realm.
Ancient records spoke of how even though the height to which one could fly had changed from the Empire, the actual number was still not very different, as at one point, all Heroes would have no option but to turn back, as that force would become too strong.
Long ago, even Daneel had studied this quite extensively. After all, one would always be curious about what lay beyond one's borders, whether it be on the land, or in the sky.
The moment he had read the reports, he had realized that the sky here was definitely not like that on Earth. If he were on Earth, even Champion level strength would have been enough for him to reach the stars in one go, but here, there was definitely something external that was stopping people from reaching the great beyond.
His hypothesis had been confirmed by the system, which had used his memories from his home planet to compare the atmosphere and find out that there really was something unexplainable above Angaria, whose origins might even be related to the reason behind there being such a stormy sea all around.
Some ancient historians were even of the opinion that these two barriers might have been set in place when Angaria came to be, itself, so that it would protect itself from any predators that might eye its bountiful land, and even though Daneel also thought that this might be true, no one knew the actual reason behind the way that the continent was.
Without using the system, he made some calculation and saw that even with the power that he had seen from the three assassins, it would be impossible for them to pass through the highest point reachable to approach that eye that was many kilometers away even from that absolute limit in the sky.
So, the closer they flew to that point, the more he started to wonder just what mechanism would be used to break through.
From up above, Angaria was a beautiful sight to behold. It was currently the time for the sun to set, so as lanterns and light-emitting trinkets came to life, it was as if the stars above were being mirrored below on the land whose borders formed an incomplete shape which reminded him of how the Church had broken away a piece of his home.
His thoughts were interrupted when he noticed that the assassins had begun to slow down. It was puzzling, as there were still a few hundred meters for the pressure to become unbearable.
Turning to the three, he saw that they were silently conversing with each other, so he waited to see what they would say.
A few seconds later, it looked like a decision had been reached, as the reptilian took out an object from a hidden pocket in her cloak.
The moment it was exposed to the air, Daneel witnessed a wave of elementary particles gather around it, and right away, he knew that it was an Artefact of great value.